Butterfly Beats Kitchen: UCSD Graphics Competition

San Diego, CA, June 08, 2007 -- A pink and black butterfly and its reflections within drops of water has edged out an intentionally bad photograph (too much flash) of a kitchen: welcome to the Spring 2007 edition of UC San Diego’s “rendering algorithms” graphics contest. In place of paints and brushes or cameras, computer science students at the Jacobs School of Engineering created realistic, 3D graphics by leveraging number crunching algorithms with the art and science of computer programming under deadline pressure.

The class, “CSE 168: Rendering Algorithms” is taught by Henrik Wann Jensen, UCSD’s Academy Award winning computer scientist, well known for his contributions to photo-realistic, computer-generated humans in the movies.

Each contestant had 4 minutes to describe how his or her realistic image was rendered using software that each student developed as part of the class.

“I’m very impressed. You all definitely learned a lot in this class,” said Jensen after the presentations, while the three judges deliberated.

Per Christensen from Pixar, Jurgen Schultze from Calit2, and Wojciech Jarosz, the course TA, served as the judges. The grand prize: admission to SIGGRAPH 2007, the premier computer graphs and interactive techniques conference.

Iman Sadeghi, a first year Ph.D. student in the computer science and engineering department of the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering, won the grand prize for his efforts to render a colorful snapshot of the natural world with algorithms.

Grand Prize: graphics contest for CSE 168 Rendering Algorithms. Author/Creator: Iman Sadeghi, a first year Ph.D. student in the computer science and engineering department of the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. What the judges said: Inspiring artistic quality. Portraying nature is very hard, and Iman did a great job at that.

First Prize:

First Prize: graphics contest for CSE 168 Rendering Algorithms. Author/Creator: Toshiya Hachisuka. What the judges said: Impressive. By far, the project with the most technical content.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order)

Honorable Mention: Graphics contest for CSE 168 Rendering Algorithms. Author/Creator: Wan-Yen Lo. What the judges said: Liked Wan-Yen's effort to create a historical connection with a China of the past. Liked the stones and the sun shining through the doors and windows in the distance.

Honorable Mention: Graphics contest for CSE 168 Rendering Algorithms. Author/Creator: Joey Hammer. What the judges said: The wear and tear added to features like the stools and booths was a nice touch. Liked the reflective models.

Honorable Mention: Graphics contest for CSE 168 Rendering Algorithms. Author/Creator: Kristen Kho. What the judges said: Liked the modeling, the texture work and the depth of field. Wished the sky didn't look so overexposed.

Honorable Mention: Graphics contest for CSE 168 Rendering Algorithms. Author/Creator: Brad Byrd. What the judges said: Liked the motion capture video that was used in the presention of the final graphic.